A type of psychotherapy called rational emotive behavior therapy assists you in recognizing and challenging self-defeating thoughts and feelings, as well as in replacing them with more constructive and healthy beliefs. To help you understand how unhealthy thoughts and beliefs cause emotional distress, which in turn leads to unhealthy actions and behaviors that interfere with your life and goals, psychologist Albert Ellis developed REBT in the mid-1950s. REBT focuses primarily on the present. You may build more fruitful and positive connections in both your personal and professional life by changing negative ideas and behaviors after they have been recognized and understood.

REBT is found to be beneficial in the treatment of various mental health problems such as excessive or inappropriate anger, anxiety, stress, depression, guilt, and problems with self-worth. Moreover, procrastination, poor eating habits, and aggression are instances of stressful and self-defeating behaviors that can lower your quality of life and make it more difficult for you to reach your objectives. REBT can help you identify and change these behaviors. The therapist will work together with you to identify the attitudes and rigid thought patterns that may impede your ability to cope with and overcome obstacles or reach your own goals. You will be supported by your therapist in seeing the fallacies and detrimental consequences of these concepts. Using a variety of mental exercises, you will then discover how to reduce the number of negative thoughts and behaviors you have and replace them with ones that are healthier, more positive, and accepting of who you are. In REBT, a variety of methods and tools are employed, including task assignments for reinforcement in between sessions, self-help literature, audiovisual aids, positive visualization, and rephrasing your ideas.

REBT OR CBT?
Although the foundations of CBT and REBT are similar, they differ significantly in a few important ways. These methods assist you in accepting and altering distressing illogical beliefs. However, REBT emphasizes the acceptance component a bit more. This component of treatment is referred to by the developer of REBT as unconditional self-acceptance. This is accepting that you are a human being who may and will make errors as well as attempting to avoid passing judgment on yourself. Another distinctive feature of REBT is its occasional use of humour as a therapeutic strategy to encourage you to view situations more creatively or with fewer serious implications. This might include sarcasm, songs, or cartoons. Secondary symptoms, such as feeling low about having depression or worrying about having anxiety, are also addressed by REBT.